Interior design may involve developing and evaluating a design for a room or environment. For example, a designer may wish to position various objects, including furniture, lighting fixtures, and wall hangings, within a two-dimensional (2D) environment of an interior room. Conventional interior design tools may enable a user to position a three-dimensional (3D) model of an object by selecting the object, and “dragging and dropping” the object to a location in the 2D environment using a mouse, keyboard or other input device.
The inventors herein have recognized various issues with the above methods. Namely, although 3D objects may be positioned independently within the 2D environment, it may be difficult to precisely align the 3D object relative to other objects already present in the 2D environment. For example, a user may want to place a table underneath and in vertical alignment with a light fixture. Using conventional methods, a user can manually position an object to be in alignment with another object; however, manually aligning objects may be time-consuming and imprecise.
One approach that at least partially address the above issues may include a method for placing the 3D model of the object in the 2D environment, comprising projecting a projection from the 3D object while positioning the 3D object within the 2D environment.
In another embodiment, a method for placing 3D models of objects in the 2D environment may comprise placing the 3D object along a plane at a first position, moving the 3D object away from the first position along an axis perpendicular to the plane, and projecting a planar target or planar shadow of the 3D object on the plane about the axis. In projecting the planar target about the axis, the perpendicular axis passes through the center of the 3D object to the center of the planar target projected on the plane.
In another embodiment, a method of aligning a first 3D object and a second 3D object in the 2D environment about an alignment axis may comprise selecting the alignment axis, generating a planar projection along the alignment axis from the first 3D object, and positioning the second 3D object corresponding to the planar projection.
In another embodiment, a method may comprise projecting an elevated 3D object wherein the projection may be demonstrated as crosshairs. The crosshairs on the ground plane may be used for placing another 3D object in the 2D environment.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.